After profitable the stage on Saturday and shifting as much as second on GC, solely eight seconds down, Elise Chabbey and her FDJ-Suez teammates determined to place all of it on the road to attempt to win the final classification on the third and closing stage of the Tour de Romandie Féminin.
And the plan labored, although Chabbey has moments of doubt on the ultimate climb, which she shared together with her teammate Juliette Labous.
“On the final climb, I wasn’t feeling properly. I instructed Juliette, we’ve got to alter plans,” Chabbey stated. “I am not used to being the chief. It is arduous for me to deal with the stress, too. She was actually nice. She instructed me, ‘pay attention, you don’t have anything to lose, take pleasure in your self. ’”
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“The women motivated me, they did an enormous job, and in reality that is additionally what a group is about, it is about motivating one another and when we’ve got issues to be there for the opposite.”
When Chabbey joined the French Girls’s WorldTour squad for the 2025 season, she stated on the time that it was in order that the “group may help me get the higher of myself and get an enormous race win.”
“I feel the guess paid off,” the 32-year-old rider stated after the stage on Sunday. However profitable is just not every little thing for the medical physician and Olympian in each kayaking and biking.
“I all the time say that I experience a motorbike as a result of I like it, so even when I do not win, it is not that unhealthy, nevertheless it’s true that it feels good to win occasionally. I am a rider who’s all the time there, however I hardly ever win. I used to be speaking to Juliette as a result of she wasn’t feeling very properly, and we stated to one another, really, this sport is so arduous as a result of we’re firstly, all of us do our greatest work, and in the long run, it is so arduous to win for everybody. I feel you must recognize it.”
Chabbey has had fairly a profitable summer season, profitable the mountain classification on the Tour de France Femmes, and a stage win and the general at Romandie, however she admitted that it doesn’t change her standing on the group. A standing that she’s fairly blissful to have.
“I do not assume so. I feel we’re the perfect group on the planet proper now, and we nonetheless have Demi [Vollering], who’s our chief. I additionally love working for her, I really like working for the leaders,” she stated.
“Being a frontrunner is just not a standing that I actually like. I had enjoyable in the present day, after which that it really works is fairly loopy nevertheless it’s actually tough as a place. Folks generally do not realise it. I recognize my position within the group. This position of an aggressive rider attempting issues, that is additionally what I like in biking, and it is not essentially the final for the Grand Excursions.”
